


I Run

by Merfilly



Category: DCU - Comicverse
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Introspection, Songfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-08-14
Updated: 2007-08-14
Packaged: 2017-10-29 00:40:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/313933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Inspired by Melissa Etheridge, a look into Barry's mind as the Crisis culminates.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Run

_I run for hope_

Together, they could be something so much more than each of them could be alone. It was more than enough to pull Barry in, to let him throw his speed into a hat as a tool for justice.

He never expected to lead them.

 _I run to feel_

Iris was forever teasing him about his incessant lateness. He couldn't bring himself to tell her he had been in Europe, stopping an avalanche, or in South America facing gigantic alien invaders.

All he could keep doing was running, to be there as much as he could be.

 _I run for the truth_

One of the hardest things he had ever done, was stand there and let them judge him. But everything he had ever done, ever been, meant nothing if he did not give himself over to the very justice he had sworn to uphold.

And life, in its own justice, gave him the sweetest reward.

 _For all that is real_

Happiness. It was something few heroes got in great measure. They took it where they could, and Flash had found it in Iris's arms, reunited ten centuries away from where he had fallen in love with her.

He would always run right back to her, no matter where or when she was.

 _I run for your mother, your sister, your wife_

He could see them all. Heroes like Diana and Dinah. Reporters like Silver and Lois. Kids, learning the ropes, like Donna and Kory and Raven. He wondered if they would remember this, if they would hold tighter to the ones they loved in their lives, and yet still let go at the right moment.

Iris would have, if she had been given the choice. Iris had known and accepted it. He ran faster, keeping her smile, her arms, her scent right there.

 _I run for you and me, my friend_

Clark. Hal. Bruce. Oliver. He knew they'd keep saving the world. They just had to have the chance to do it.

A world where he would be gone…but there was Wally…

 _I run for life_

He could feel it stripping his existence, unmaking him…no, it was **making** him something **more**. He would run, he would beat the energy, he would save the world…and he would be something more than he had ever been. He couldn't let that thought awe him, push him off his run.

And then there was nothing but Lightning.


End file.
